President of Google China, Kai-Fu Lee, will resign and start his own venture, Sina.com reported Friday.

Sources said that Google China will announce his resignation Friday morning.

Though rumors of Lee's resignation were heard from time to time during his four-year term at Google China, many of his employees are still shocked about the news. The Sina.com report added that all the key members of Google China's original launch team formed in 2005 when the company entered China had all resigned.

People familiar with the matter said another Google executive will fill Lee's position.

Kai-Fu Lee joined Google in 2005 to develop the company's operations in China. During his tenure, Google's market share in China almost doubled from its 16 percent quota in 2006.

Prior to his tenure at Google, Lee was corporate vice president of Microsoft. His departure caused a legal battle between Microsoft and Google, and the two companies reached a settlement in December 2005 but did not release the terms of the deal.

(CRI September 4, 2009)